This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
- 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Paul had been talking about human leaders of the church and how the people should focus on Jesus Christ and the gospel message rather than the people who teach that message. He wraps up all of those thoughts with the section of this letter that we’re looking at today.
Paul and all the other people who were spreading and teaching the gospel message should be regarded as servants of Christ (verse 1a). It’s important here to dig into the word “servant.” The Greek word originally derived from a rower on a ship, but it generally means an attendant or a servant. Often, we confuse the word slave with the word servant, but a slave is definitely not what Paul means here. This word for servant here refers to someone who is under an authority figure but they are functioning as a free person, not enslaved. Paul, Apollos, and the other leaders are under the authority of Jesus Christ. They are fully responsible to Jesus Christ and to Him alone. Other than that responsibility, they have freedom.
The word “entrusted” refers to the idea of a person managing the affairs of a household. This person was often a slave who would have significantly less freedom than a servant. The leaders had been “entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed” (verse 1b). These “mysteries” are the things that we cannot understand through our own human wisdom but only through the power of the Holy Spirit. While they had freedom under the authority of Jesus Christ, they were enslaved to what the Holy Spirit was revealing to them about God.
This is emphasized in verse 2 where Paul writes that it is required for him to be faithful. God has called Paul to proclaim the gospel message, and Paul absolutely must remain faithful and trustworthy in that calling. He cannot depart from it!
Because the only authority truly over Paul is God, he does not care what happens to him in human courts of law (verse 3). No human’s opinion matters to him, not even his own. This lines up with his writing in Romans 8:31-33: “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.” If God is for Paul (and He clearly is), then it doesn’t matter who might be against Paul. No one can bring any charge against him that actually matters in this world.
Paul makes an important distinction in verse 4. His conscience may be clear, but he is not innocent. Even though he is doing what God has called him to do and he is being continually led by the Holy Spirit, Paul is still a sinner. Paul still had human temptations and disobeyed God in various ways, even though the “big picture” of his life is obedience to God. He knows that God is the one who will judge him. He doesn’t care at all about human judgment; only the Lord’s judgment matters to Paul, since the Lord is the only authority that is truly over him.
Paul then jumps forward to describe the final judgment day in verse 5. Paul commands them to not judge anything before that appointed time; again, humans are not the final, authoritative judge of one another, that’s God’s job. Only God will be the true and accurate judge of all humankind because only God knows all of our thoughts, words, and actions. Even the things that we have hidden from other people will be exposed when Jesus comes again to judge all of humanity. Everything will be exposed!
But Paul also makes sure to put some good news in there. On that final judgment day, not only will our sins be judged, but we will also receive praise from God for the good that we have done and how we have been obedient to Him in our lives.
Why does Paul bring this up? He saw that the Corinthian church was judging one another, and Paul is telling them they need to stop that. While we are encouraged through the Scriptures to hold one another accountable for the purpose of helping one another grow in our faith, that is very different than judging one another. We can encourage one another and help correct our brothers and sisters in the faith when we see them going astray, but only God has the true authority to judge.
We, too, are to live our lives as servants of Christ. We have the freedom to live how we want to, but to be obedient to God, we are required to live within the bounds of the gospel message and the mysteries that God has revealed to us in the Scriptures. We are servants of Christ, under the authority of Christ and Christ alone.
Now, that does not mean that we have free reign to disobey earthly authorities. God has set up systems of authority for us humans here on Earth so that we don’t all live in utter chaos. We are to obey the authorities that God has placed over us because we are following Him as the ultimate authority. But we should not live in fear of human authorities since it is only God’s judgment that should truly matter to us. As Jesus taught in Matthew 10:28, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
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